Hadrian's Wall Trekathon

Hadrian’s Wall had been on the top of my list of places left to see in the UK for a while.  Emperor Hadrian ordered the construction of the wall in AD 122 to separate the Roman Empire in Britain from the barbarians of the north.  Even today, the wall marks the border between England and Scotland.  The wall took approximately 6 years to build and ran 80 Roman miles (or 73 modern miles) from coast to coast.  Most of the wall can still be seen today, and is designated a UNESCO World Heritage site.  

  

Ruins of Willowford Bridge

A few months ago, while I was on my way home from work to the train station, the shuttle driver was listening to Classic FM.  The station was advertising a Hadrian’s Wall Trekathon to raise funds for the Classic FM Foundation, a charity that provides music education and therapy to disadvantaged children throughout the UK.  I thought this would be the perfect opportunity to see the Wall and do some good!  So I signed us up!

When David heard that I had signed him up for a 26 mile trek, he immediately joined a gym.

The training regime we were given by the trek organizers called for 8-hour hikes in the country each weekend.  But we live in the city, and honestly, who has 8 hours on Saturday or Sunday to spend walking around the countryside?  Instead, we spent 2-3 days a week in the gym, running or doing Pilates.

So the walk was hard.  Really, really hard.

To make matters worse, this weekend it stormed like crazy up north!  We were probably working twice as hard as we would’ve been in nice weather to get to the finish line.  The wind was relentless and it downpoured for hours. 

You can’t even hear David’s commentary in this video because the wind is howling so loudly.  But he’s basically showing you the weather, and asking if I’m ready to go.  I shake my head no, but actually once we started walking, I warmed up a lot.  So it was much better than standing there waiting!

When we woke up at 4:30 that morning to get ready to go, we looked out the window and then at our phones to make sure the walk wasn’t being called off.  (And to be honest, if we didn’t have all of those sponsors who had donated money for us, we may have considered just going right back to our warm, comfy hotel bed!)  But the weather does not faze the English.  They will go on, hell or high water.  And there was lots of high water!  Some of the hikers didn’t even have water-proof shoes on, but they didn’t care at all – just kept on trekking.  One man even came dressed as a Roman, in a skirt and a matching red cape.  At least he was wearing proper socks and hiking boots.  But even so, he had to give up before the halfway mark. 

We were prepared with new outfits, going on a shopping spree at North Face a few weeks before the hike for light, comfortable pants, windbreakers, and Gortex boots. 

I’m not sure if you can hear me in this video, either, but I’m basically saying that our waterproof shoes held up for about 4 hours before finally calling it quits.  Water started to leak in about halfway through the hike, so our feet were soaked.  At the end of the day, we actually dumped water out of our shoes and wrung out our socks.

Throughout the walk, I kept wondering how many people out of the 127 that started actually made it to the finish line without injuries, because it got pretty scary at some points.  It was very, very steep going up and down all those hills.  The grass and rocks were slick with rain and mud.  At one point, David almost rolled his ankle in the soft grass.  And I punctured my hand on some barbed wire fencing when I instinctively reached out for support on one hill.  Good thing I just got my tetanus shot!

Climbing down this cliff was the scariest part.  There was a lull in the rain, but the rocks were still wet from earlier and the path was set at almost a 90-degree angle.  Some people, including me, just scooted down on our backsides.

David kept making fun of me because I had no peripheral vision with my hoods on, so every time I wanted to look around me, I had to swivel my whole head.  Being able to see properly probably would've made the hike more safe!

Some parts of the trail were completely flooded, so we had to climb up onto the wall to keep going.  Here I thought the wind was seriously going to blow me right off.  And the wall was pretty high, too.  David had to boost me up and then jump almost 5 feet back onto the trail, pulling me down.  I don’t know how some people did it, especially the older people in the group that were travelling alone.  I bet there were a lot of good Samaritans that helped them.  David was one of them.  A group of ladies he helped out called him their “knight in shining armor.” 

It wasn’t all bad though.  I didn’t believe the leader when she told us it was going to rain all day, but we would still have fun.  We actually did have a lot of fun – it was an experience we’ll never forget and it made us feel like we really accomplished something.

David demonstrating how windy it was!

I look annoyed, but I think David just caught me 

at a bad time, halfway up the hill.

David and I broke up the walk by having some fun with the local livestock.

Cow:  So, how’s your walk going?  David:  It's udder-ly amazing!  

Cow:  Well, you'd better get a moooove on!

And when the weather did clear up, the scenery was breathtaking.  The land around the wall is mostly farmland now.  There were some small towns that we had to cross through, complete with picturesque ruins and babbling brooks.  At one point, I told David, “I can’t believe places like this still exist.  I feel like I’m in a Disney movie!”

Not quite Disney, but this is the tree from Kevin Costner's Robin Hood

In the end, the walk was supposed to take 12 hours but David and I finished in 10.  And that included multiple snack/water breaks and a 20 minute lunch break to eat, rest, and stretch!  So we averaged about 2.5 miles per hour, which we were really happy with!

The finishing line at Lanercost Priory.  By this point, I was already asleep.  David is just holding me up for the last shot with our medals!

Thanks again to everyone who sponsored us!  We raised more than £550, surpassing our target!  Way to go, Team House! 

Into Africa

It’s always been David’s dream to go on safari in Africa.  As this was his ultimate vacation, he planned everything, and did a fantastic job!  He chose to do a Northern Circuit tour of Tanzania just after the rainy season in early June to see the wildebeest migration across the Serengeti. 

We’ve broken up the blog by each region of Tanzania we visited – Arusha, Lake Manyara, Serengeti, and Ngorongoro.  And because we have so many pictures and videos, we’ve posted all of the photos on Facebook and the videos are here on the blog. 

Arusha

We didn’t spend much time in Arusha, but Kilimanjaro airport is nearby so we did spend our first night at the Serena Mountain Lodge.  The tour company we used partners with Serena lodges, and they were great!  We felt like we were in “Out of Africa” because during the day we’d get absolutely filthy bouncing around in the safari jeep through the dirt.  Then at night, we’d come back to the lodge to get cleaned up, have pre-dinner drinks with our group, a four-course dinner, and after-dinner drinks before heading to bed and repeating the process again the next day. 

When we got to our lodge in Arusha, we met the six other couples in our group.  Our car consisted of a group of friends from Jersey (not the state – the Channel Island) and David and me.  The Jersey couples, Baz & Mary and Mo & Hillary, have been on four other safaris together but at the end of this one, said Tanzania was the best.  We set the bar very high!

The other vehicles had a honeymooning couple, Ben & Sunny, and a few others from the London area.  Everyone was so nice, and this made the week even more fun!  Plus our driver, Dynamite, was awesome!  His real name is Baruti but he asked us to call him Dynamite (I think it’s so cute how sometimes guides give Westerners easy-to-remember English names).  He asked us to trust him and said if we worked together, we would be really successful in seeing lots of animals!  And he was right, trust your driver! 

Lake Manyara

When we headed to Lake Manyara, famous for its tree-climbing lions, we thought the 2-hour drive would just be along the highway between cities, but we actually saw our first wildlife off the side of the road – giraffes, zebras, storks, and ostriches.  There were also Masai everywhere!  Dynamite told us that their numbers have exploded in the past few years, from just 5,000 to 60,000 people. 

The shepherds we saw on the side of the road were so young.  We later learned the Masai go to the village school until the age of 7, and then either move to the local city school or go to work.  So most of the younger kids we saw must’ve just been around the age of 7 or 8.  That’s a dangerous job for a little kid – wandering the wild, fending off lions and other predators to protect your herd. 

We also saw a lot of boys dressed completely in black with the top half of their faces painted white.  Dynamite explained that before a boy can become a man, they are sent to the wild for three months.  If they survive and come home with a kill, they are officially a man.  During this period, they don black and paint their faces white to distinguish themselves between the boys and men.

Once we got to the Serena Lake Manyara lodge, we checked in and had lunch.  During lunch, we were surprised by a group of baboons that were walking around the grounds.  Baboons are the ugliest creatures (except for the babies that hang onto their mama's backs).  David was taking a picture of me at one point, and two monkeys started mating.  No shame!

Down in the Rift Valley near the lake, we saw sooo many monkeys.  They dominated the game drive!  We were also happy to see the hippo pool full of hippos, even though Dynamite warned us not to get our hopes up.  So we got lucky!  And our luck didn't run out there.

Shortly after the hippos, we saw our first elephant.  We foolishly thought it might be the only elephant we'd see that day, so we stopped and stared for a long time.  And then after he walked away and disappeared in the brush, we moved on… to another elephant just down the road.  And after him, we saw a whole herd hanging out with some zebras.  As we continued through the woods, we saw more families and even a tiny, playful baby.

What a remarkable first day!  I could’ve gone home then and I would’ve been satisfied.  Little did I know…

Serengeti

On Day 3, we drove from Lake Manyara to the Serengeti.  Once inside the park, we had lunch at a picnic spot and took a short hike to a scenic overlook.  There was a giraffe hanging out next to the trail, and we have a hilarious picture of him watching us.  Like I said in the caption, sometimes I got the feeling the animals were just as fascinated with us as we were with them.  This was true especially with the giraffes, and later in Ngorongoro, the water buffalo. 

We started our 5-hour game drive across the Serengeti and the first thing we saw were lions hanging out in the shade of a ranger shed.  Like with the elephants the day before, the first lion spotting was so exciting so we took a ton of pics!  If only we knew how many cats we’d see that afternoon and on the remainder of the trip.

We came upon a cluster of large trees and in each one there was a small pride of lions.  It was absolutely amazing!  Just seeing these beautiful creatures in the wild is so special and we are so lucky to have had the opportunity to witness this.  We hope these opportunities will still be available for our children and grandchildren.

So we didn’t see any tree-climbing lions in Lake Manyara, but we saw dozens in the Serengeti.  They should change the tag line of Lake Manyara to say something about elephants or baboons instead.

Near one of the lion-filled trees, we spotted a vehicle stopped ahead.  Each time we saw someone stopped, it was a thrill!  We would pull out the binoculars and try to figure out what everyone was looking at, and then Dynamite would rush over to the site before the show moved on.

It turns out these cars were parked in front of a tree with a mother and baby leopard sleeping in the branches.  This was awe-inspiring.  Seeing a leopard is so rare, but to see a baby and her mother in a tree is almost unheard of.  Everything we’d read about leopards said they are shy creatures who liked to hide in wooded areas, not on the plains of the Serengeti.  Again, we were so lucky!  

And David got his fill of the wildebeest migration during the Serengeti game drives!  Every year, millions of wildebeest and hundreds of thousands of zebra travel northwest into Kenya in search of food and water.  It’s one of the largest remaining migrations in the world, and is astonishing to behold!  From as far as the eye could see, there were wildebeest and zebra.   

David cracked us up by mastering the wildebeest call.  By the end of the trip, he was making the call to the lions to try to get their attention.  

Another great part of the day was finding a herd of elephants cooling off at a watering hole.  We must’ve sat there for at least 30 minutes admiring them.  Dynamite told us he loved our group, because we appreciated the animals and didn’t just want to take a pic and move on.  We stayed put for up to 45 minutes at some points to catch the action.

At the end of the drive, we made our way to the Serena Serengeti Lodge on the reservation.  During our check-in briefing, the receptionist explained that there are no fences around the property and the animals are free to come and go, and often use the pool for drinking water.  Therefore, we were not allowed to walk around alone at night, but had to call a guard to escort us.  And that night after dinner, we did see an owl next to the pool, dik-diks running around, and even a serval cat.

On our second day in the Serengeti, we visited the hippo pools and finally spotted some crocs!  We also saw some hyrax at the hotel restaurant while we were having breakfast, and then a huge group of them at the visitor’s center.

Ngorongoro Crater 

As we were driving from the Serengeti to the Ngorongoro Crater 

the next day, we saw the biggest zebra herd we’ve ever seen 

in real life (obviously) or on TV. 

We were also surprised when we came across a lioness just walking down the road.  She started to hunt some nearby wildebeest, which were confused and had lost their group.  But she must not have been that hungry, because she quickly gave up and wandered back to her pride.  That was typical with all of the lions we saw.  There was prey everywhere, but those lions were spoiled with full bellies.  We were hoping to witness a kill, but it never happened.

In the early afternoon, we stopped at a local Masai village.  Here, the chief’s son gave us a tour of the small community.  They welcomed us with a traditional Masai dance, which David and I both took part in.  We had seen the jumping dance on the Amazing Race, as it was one of the challenges contestants had to participate in.  And as David found out, it is a challenge to jump that high in pencil form.  After the dance, the chief’s son took us into a typical Masai house.  And I use the term “house” very loosely.  It was a tiny hut made of sticks and dung.  Inside, there were two beds made from cow hide and a fire in the corner.  There was no light except the natural light that came through the slits in the home.  While inside, the son told us that the Masai are nomadic shepherds that move with their herds to find food and water.  They eat beef from their cattle and drink milk mixed with fresh blood – no fruits or veggies.  Each man may take multiple wives and each person has an average of 8 brothers and sisters.  What an experience!  You see these things on TV, but until I was actually in one of those homes sitting on the cow-hide bed, did I truly comprehend that yes, even in the 21^st century some people are still living like it's 400 BC.  There's nothing wrong with it, it's just very, very different.

Next, we took a short break at Olduvai Gorge, the cradle of mankind.  This is where hominin footprints from 3.5M years ago were discovered by the famous Leakeys.


We arrived at the Ngorongoro Lodge for a late lunch and a nature hike.  This lodge was more like a hotel so we didn’t need to worry about wild animals approaching.  However, David was still a paranoid parrot and felt like he had to run from our room to the restaurant at night to avoid being eaten.

On the way back from our nature walk, David, Ben, and I were downhill waiting for the rest of the group to catch up when we heard a guttural sound coming from the woods.  Ben immediately said, “THAT’S AN ANIMAL!” and went sprinting ahead to find the source.  He called us over when he saw a huge elephant with tusks just next to the path.  We started filming and as you’ll see, as David was talking he heard us and perked up.  Elephants don’t have the greatest eyesight but they have amazing hearing, which makes sense with those giant ears!  Our guide, Albert, saw him start to flap his ears and move from side to side like he was going to charge us, so he told us to RUN!  It was actually really scary, but that’s also the great thing about Africa – danger and adventure are literally just around the corner!

We had a couple of other scares when:

1) I had to go to the bathroom and the nearest pit latrine was an hour away.  To avoid the dreaded pit, Dynamite suggested I just go behind the truck.  I didn’t think we were allowed out, especially since we had just passed a pride of lions about five minutes down the road.  But Dynamite told me it would be okay and it was, but that was the scariest potty break of my life!  And I’m sure any animals that did come around later were very confused, asking themselves just what kind of animal marked their territory there. 

2) A rock got stuck in the upper right wheel of the jeep.  Dynamite had to remove the tire to get it out, so he asked the guys to help him.  Well, what I thought was a rifle on the back of the car turned out to be just a jack.  That made me a little more nervous than I had been.  And we had to fix the car right in front of a group of mean-looking water buffalo and hyenas.  Mary just happened to turn around as a hyena started to approach the car.  Baz and Mo jumped back inside and stayed there until the hyena became disinterested and moved away, but he watched them the entire time from the tall grass.  So the ladies had to keep a close lookout and sound the alarm if needed.  


For our final game drive on Saturday, Dynamite told us to be ready at 7:30 so we could get an early start to the day.  And what a day it was!

We finally saw some hyenas and jackals, but the best part was the lions! 

We saw our first older male lion with a full dark mane right before lunch.  He was sleeping (what a surprise) so we moved on.  But after lunch, Dynamite, the Lion Whisperer, said he’d like to go back because he had a feeling that lion would be up and his brother might be around.  And of course Dynamite was right.  It was eerie – like he had a sixth sense when it came to the animals.  The lion and his brother were up and headed to a kill.

Further down the road, a group of sunbathing lions we were watching got hot and moved under our vehicle to sleep in the shade.  At first it was great, but it got old after a while when we were ready to move on.

We can honestly say this was the best holiday we've ever been on!  And as much as we travel, that really is saying a lot.  We are hooked now and already thinking about where we’ll head to next in Africa!  If you ever get the chance to go on safari, take it!  

The Pup at the Pub

Summer has FINALLY arrived in London!

Last weekend at David’s and Jeff’s baseball game, Karen and I bundled up in our winter coats and boots and watched all seven innings from the warmth of the car.  But this weekend, we watched the boys in T-shirts and shorts and even got a little too much sun (my legs are painfully red). 

The House boys

Jeff pitching and David at 3rd

Even Kirby came along to soak up the rays 

and watch his daddy and uncle play ball. 

And afterwards, because he was such a good pup and 

Herts won the game, we took Kirby to his first pub to celebrate!

That was Sunday.  On Saturday, I planned a day out in Highgate.  A couple of years ago I read Her Fearful Symmetry, a novel written by Audrey Niffenegger, the author of The Time Traveler’s Wife.  Her Fearful Symmetry is a story about twin girls that inherit their aunt’s flat in Highgate overlooking a famous cemetery, and they experience some supernatural activity.  But not scary supernatural.  More like the Time Traveler's Wife supernatural.  The setting of the book is a real place in north London and I’ve wanted to visit it for a while.  So with the weather finally hitting the high-70s, this was the perfect time to get out there!

We took the one-hour tour of Highgate Cemetery in the afternoon.  The cemetery is one of seven that was commissioned in the mid-1800s to solve the problem of churchyard overcrowding.  This was the first opportunity for the Victorians to show off their wealth through death.  Karl Marx is buried here, as well as the Dickens family (sans Charles Dickens, who was laid to rest in Poet’s Corner in Westminster Abbey).  The cemetery is still in use today, though space is quickly running out.

The cemetery was built on a wooded hill, 

making it a peaceful walk through the woods for visitors

Highgate's most famous occupant - Karl Marx

Egyptian Avenue

Row of tombs

Some of the headstones and monuments are completely covered in foliage

After the tour, we walked down Swain’s Lane to Parliament Hill to relax in the park with the rest of London.  Parliament Hill is so-named because during the English Civil War, the hill was held by the Parliamentarians against the Royalists.  It is also rumored that Guy Fawkes planned to watch Parliament blow up from here.  The top of the hill offers great panoramic views of the city. 

At the bottom of the hill was a large pond and David joked that it was so warm, he wouldn't mind going swimming.  When we came to the bottom, we saw that this was in fact a “swimming pond” and the place was full of locals and even a lifeguard paddling around on a surfboard.  Gross!  I love to swim, but in a pond?  There were ducks and geese paddling around next to the people.  It must be filthy in there.  I’d have to be pretty desperate to swim in a pond.  But then again, when we first moved, I used to poke fun at all of the pale Londoners that would come out in droves in their swimsuits to tan in the parks.  In Texas, you’d hang out at the lake or the local pool, not a park.  But now we’ve become just as pale (David’s new nickname for me is Powder) and just as desperate for the sun.  

Who knows... maybe next year we'll be missing water so 

much that we'll be cooling down in this "swimming pond."

Then we walked through Hampstead Heath to the Camden area.  Everyone always raves about this area of London and its quaint alleys and fun pubs.  It was super cute and we had lunch in the garden of a little wine bar called Forks and Corks.

We found the cutest village in the middle of Camden.  

This is the gate to the community...

...and inside were picture-perfect cottages like this!

Living in a place like London really does make you appreciate the seasons more.  This weather could not be more perfect and with my new job that keeps me closer to home and only a couple of trips planned this summer, we are looking forward to a lot more weekend outings!

Brighton Beach Holiday

For the long May bank holiday weekend, David and I decided to go to Brighton to soak up the sun on the beach. But of course, it rained… the entire time! I swear it’s been raining nonstop for almost a year now. And with all of the rain comes cold temperatures. So instead of lying around on the beach getting tans, we bundled up in our winter coats and explored the city.

I always forget how close London is to the coast. The other day when I was flying in from Vienna after my last business trip to Bratislava (in case you haven’t heard, last Monday I started a new job at Dell that keeps me closer to home – yay!) I could see the coast and the O2 arena simultaneously out of the plane window.

Brighton's rocky beaches

It makes sense then, that Brighton is only a 50 minute train ride south. We arrived Friday night after work and checked into the historic Grand hotel on the promenade.

The Grand Hotel has hosted Presidents Kennedy and Reagan, some famous actors, and Margaret Thatcher. During Thatcher’s visit in 1984, the IRA blew up the hotel, killing 5 people and injuring dozens more. The hotel was rebuilt back to its Victorian grandeur two years later.

Early Saturday afternoon, we walked through the Lanes, narrow streets in the center of the town full of shops and restaurants. We stopped at English’s, a 150-year old seafood restaurant, for lunch. The family that owns the restaurant has been harvesting its own oysters for more than 400 years, so of course David had to try them. I’m still not an oyster fan, so I stuck with the giant prawn spaghetti.

After lunch we walked down the road to the Brighton Pavilion, George IV’s opulent palace. King George IV was a terrible king and basically wasted away his life drinking and eating. His palace in Brighton was constructed purely to house his lavish parties. The outside is in the “Hindu style” as builder Nash called it, and the inside is covered in Oriental decoration, which was popular in the 1800s and known as the “chinoiserie” style. It doesn’t seem like a real palace at all because it’s so whimsical. Because George IV loved to eat so much and was morbidly obese, the highlights of the tour here were the modern kitchen and dining room, where the center chandelier is dangling from the talons of a giant dragon. We weren’t allowed to take pictures inside so you just have to imagine it. The stranger, the better.

Entrance to the Royal Pavilion

Front lawn

After dinner, guests would move into the music room. The dome of this room is covered in gold cockle shells. After an arsonist tried burning down the palace in 1975, these were painstakingly restored one-by-one. But in 1987, during a hurricane (yeah, who knew there were hurricanes in England?!) the heavy stone ball on top of the dome came loose and crashed through the ceiling. So the restoration had to begin all over again. Bad luck!

It felt like a hurricane outside that afternoon, so after our palace tour, we headed back to the hotel and relaxed watching movies and ordering room service. Our kind of vacation!

Before the day was over, I had to try some Brighton rock candy

On Sunday, we shopped! We made the excuse that there was nothing else to do, so we strolled along the North Laines, which are little streets like the Lanes but with more bohemian shops. We found the cutest T-shirt boutique that sells graphic T’s featuring book covers. And for every sale, the company donates a book to a child in Africa. David picked up a Sherlock Holmes T and I grabbed The Wizard of Oz and Pride and Prejudice.

Old pub in the Lanes

After shopping, we had afternoon tea back at the Grand.

David loves his English breakfast tea and scones!

Then the weather looked a bit clearer, so we decided to take a run down to Hove, a small town on the coast next to Brighton. David just joined his first gym, so he was very motivated to keep in shape, even on vacation!

Colorful Hove beach huts

Whoa!  Someone is excited to be running on the beach!

Monday was the bank holiday, so we celebrated on Brighton Pier. First, we rode the Brighton Wheel, similar to the London Eye but not as tall, to get some good views of the seaside resort. This didn’t really work out because it started pouring! Between the showers, we rode some rides on the pier, including the mechanical bull (where I think we managed to stay on for 6 seconds – total of both our times combined… we did not make Texas proud). We also rode the Mousetrap roller coaster and played the Dolphin Derby, where David beat out 18 other players on his FIRST TRY to win me a purple dolphin!

At the top of the wheel

Unfortunately he couldn't win me a dolphin AND an angry bird

Slide ride on the pier

And that was it! We grabbed the afternoon train home and even got back in time to see The Avengers that night. It was a really relaxing weekend away from the city, but I am sad we didn’t get to lie on the beach in the sun. Seriously, English weather, I’ve had enough! The April showers should be over. Summer is supposed to be here. I’m ready to put away my winter clothes and get some Vitamin D, so Brighton up!